Two years later…
“Why do I have to get married for the family benefits?” Ariana tried to reason with Ashton, his father. They are forcing her but Ariana is no longer that easy to be bullied.
“Shut up! Why shouldn’t you get married to help the family?” he shouted at her. Hearing her father’s words Ariana cannot believe this is actually her biological father. They had been pestering her throughout University to get married to all sorts of businessmen to help their company in which she always refused but it now got worse after she completed her studies. It is almost as if she does not have a choice in the matter.
“Sister, what is wrong with getting married? Father and mother had been taking care of you for years. This is you paying them back.” Gina Fearon said softly as if she was doing Ariana a great favor.
I looked at her as if she had grown another head. “Why don’t you do the honors of helping your father with the company since you are so concerned?” Ariana said coldly. ‘If you didn’t steal my boyfriend two years, would I be going through this right now?’ Ariana brushed that thought aside for Adam Richards is not worthy to be thought about.
“Gina has a future ahead of her and she is going to take over the company as soon as she completes her last year of studies. And she is already getting married to Adam Richards in three months.” Angela responded gloatingly.
“So what, don’t I have a future too?” Ariana cannot believe these people are her so called family. They had never treated her as a part of the family. Her stepmother and sister bullied her throughout childhood and for some reasons they managed to corrupt her father over the years.
The way he looked at her, the disdain in his eyes is obvious and cannot be hidden. As a father he never protected her from evil hands, it is almost as if he had a personal grudge against her. Does he?
Regardless of his indifference towards her, Ariana still cannot manage to hate him as much as he hates her. Ariana doesn't even know if her mother is dead or alive because she never came back for her and when she became of age, she never went looking for her. Ariana had given up on her mother a long time ago.
Ariana didn’t know when she left Fearon's home, all she knew is the fact that she ended up in her apartment. Ariana took a shower and went to bed. She has gotten a job in the biggest company in Westron City and she needs to get up early and be prepared.
The next day …
In Matthew’s Group
“President, here’s your schedule for the day and remember that you have an appointment with Mr. Johnson the CEO of the JJ Company at 1pm.”
Michael did not respond. He did not like the CEO because of his bad reputation against innocent women and he was seriously considering if he should renew their contract. Despite this, he is still a good businessman. It was rumored that he will be getting engaged to the eldest daughter of Fearon's group. The eldest daughter of the Fearon’s family is not officially known. No parent would allow their daughter to be involved with such a man for the exchange of financial gain. They must hate her in order to do such things. Well, it is not my business, so I am going to take care of the ones that pay me.
“Alex, are the new hires settled in their departments?”
“Yes sir. Here are their files and which department each of them are placed in.” Michael took the files and started browsing through each of the files. Every year or two they hire at least three University graduates. While going through the files, Michael suddenly stopped at the third file with his eyes glued to the small photo clipped to the top left of the file but his face was still expressionless.
Alex noticed that he kept looking at one of the files for a long time, so he thought there was something wrong with that recruit. “Sir if there is a problem with one of the new recruits, I can get the next candidate on the waiting list.”
“No need.” Michael lazily responded. ‘I would never forget this face. I have been looking for you for two years and I finally found you. I cannot believe you had been hiding unintentionally in plain sight. Ariana, Ariana, you will not get the chance to escape again because you will be my woman’.
“Which department is she in?” Michael asked with curiosity.
Alex looked at the president blankly and whispered in his head, ‘how should I know, you have the files in front of you’. Fearing for his life, Alex Jones could not say that aloud.
As if Michael could read his mind, “I am referring to Ariana Fearon. It shows here that she studied Business Management at University Hampton of Business and graduated at the top of her class.”
“She applied for the Marketing Department.” Alex politely responded but at the same time wondering why his boss seemed to be interested in this one. He doesn't normally pay attention to these things. In fact, ever since he got injured by his uncle and his family two years ago and was saved by a woman in which he didn’t even know her name, he had been looking for her and never got involved with any other woman.
While Alex was in his thoughts, he heard Mr. Matthews blurted out, “Transfer her to Secretary.”
Chapter chapter 4
Ariana Fearon got to Matthew’s Group building thirty minutes early since she had to go to HR to finalize her contract. Ariana is really excited for her new job but nervous at the same time, she had already given up on Fearon’s Group since there is no place for her there.
“Babe, you will do great here. You are now working for the highest paying company in Westron and I just wish for you to be comfortable.” Emily Smith is even more excited than Ariana. It is hard to tell who is going to work here. She even volunteered to bring her bestfriend to work for the first day. Emily had inherited her family’s company, so she is quite busy these days.
Ariana smiled and couldn’t help rolling her eyes at Emily. “Why are you so excited?”
“Of course I am excited to see you doing something you love. It is time to put that damn family of yours in the past.” Emily must have seen the hurt in Ariana’s eyes so she stopped, “I am sorry babe, and you know I can get carried away sometimes.”
“It is not your fault, I just always thought my marriage would be about love. Never thought they would rinse me off to an arranged marriage.” Ariana sighed in her heart.
“So, do you know who they arranged for you this time?”
“I have no idea because I am not interested.”
Emily got angry, “Don’t they have that b*tch Gina to put up for sale if they are in need of family strength?” Tears welled up in Ariana’s eyes but she was too stubborn to let her teardrops fall. Emily was so caught up in her anger so much that she didn’t even realize Ariana’s pain on this topic.
“Say no more. I just want to make an honest living and leave that family behind for good.” Ariana really meant what she said but Gina and Angela White kept making trouble for her.
Emily seemed to remember something. She looked over to Ariana and wiped her tears then smirked. “Remember you have the hottest bachelor in Westron City as your boss. Maybe you can make him fall in love with you.”
Ariana blushed and lowered her head, “you know that is impossible. We met two years ago by chance plus I doubt he even remembers me. He must have women from all around flaunting at his feet. Why would he want a nobody like me?”
“Babe, you might be surprised and you are not a nobody. You my love is a Queen, you are beautiful, kind hearted, sophisticated and one day will make a great wife and mother. Furthermore, Mr. Matthews hardly shows up in the media and I have never heard any relationship rumors of him and any woman in the past two years.”
Ariana rolled her eyes, “you liked talking nonsense, right?” “Anyway, I am here to work not to hunt for a husband.” Even though Ariana said that she hoped to meet Michael again, not on a relationship level but to see if he is okay. Well obviously he is, he had successfully taken over the Matthews’ Group from his family. These wealthy families rely on family status rather than love when it comes to marriage. Ariana suddenly felt sour in her heart ‘He is definitely out of my reach, I am not even loved by my own family. So pitiful. Why can’t I have a normal life?’
Emily laughed, “Okay, okay, I won’t make trouble anymore. Go on before you are late. I will pick you up later if I don’t have any meetings.” Ariana was grateful for her bestfriend, she had done so much for her in the past four years of University. The only person that truly cares about her and she can’t wait to repay her one day.
“Thank you Emily but there is no need, I will take the bus. I know you are quite busy.” Ariana hugged her while opening the door of the car. “You know I would have come to your company but I would have been a distraction to you. You worried about me too much.”
Emily pouted, “I would not be worried if I can see you every day.”
Ariana smiled and kissed Emily’s cheek, “okay sweetheart, I am going now.”
…
Ariana walked in the building and went to the receptionist desk. “Hello, how may I assist you today? Are you one of the new recruits?” the receptionist politely asked.
“Yes I am, my name is Ariana Fearon.” Ariana smiled and said confidently in response.
“Okay one moment” The receptionist then checked her computer and said, “Okay Miss Fearon, come this way. You would need to sign your contract with the Human and Resources Department first and then they will take you to the department assigned to you.”
……
Inside the conference room there were two other people. A young lady about 22 years old, face plastered with makeup and looks a bit unwelcoming. The other person is a male, he had a smile on his face as soon as he saw Ariana. “Hi, my name is Kevin Levy. I will be in the Financial Department and this is one of my classmates, her name is June Ingram. We both completed our studies overseas but she will be in the Marketing Department.”
“Oh hi, I am Ariana Fearon. I will also be in the Marketing Department but I studied at University Hampton of Business.” Ariana responded politely with a faint smile.
“Has anyone told you how beautiful you are when you smile?” said Kevin Levy who never took his eyes off Ariana since she came into this room. Ariana Fearon did not know how to respond to his compliment, it made her feel weird and before Ariana could respond, her train of thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door. They all looked to the direction of the door to see who it was.
A middle aged plump woman in a black office suit came in and greeted everyone in the room, “Good morning everyone, my name is Gilda Manning and I am the HR Manager. I won’t waste your time so let us get down to business. The company had already sent you your contracts via email and you’re only required to sign today.” She gave each of them their respective contracts. “Please let me know if you have any questions.”
Ariana looked at her contract and frowned, when she turned to look at the other two they seemed contended with theirs. Ariana got up and went up to the Manager, “this is not the contract I received. I am supposed to be in the Marketing Department not secretarial.”
“I know but this is the request of the higher ups, they needed a new Secretary and requested to take it from this group.” The Manager responded a bit irritated.
Ariana was a bit annoyed as well, “Why me?”
“I don’t know, you can ask the higher ups when you get there.” Gilda sneered.
‘How can I do that? It is not like I am looking forward to getting fired on my first day of work. Well whatever, how hard can it be?’
Everyone signed their contracts and was taken to their individual departments. Ariana was taken to the sixty-eighth floor. The space here made this floor extremely huge and the scenery over the entire city from here is magnificent, so beautiful. Just imagine if it was night and the City lights are on. Ariana was so caught up in the view that she did not realize that she is on the same floor as the President.
“Here is your station Ms. Fearon and these are your colleagues Janice Lee, Phoebe Watson, Laurie Michaels and Michelle Sinclair. You can ask them for anything you don’t understand.” Alex said politely.
With a smile Ariana said to the four ladies, “Hello, my name is Ariana Fearon and I hope you can assist me where needed so we can work as one in the future.”
They all smiled and welcomed her in front of Alex Jones and that made Ariana feel welcomed.
“Janice please assign Ms. Fearon’s work for her, you can start with the simpler workload until she is ready for other stuff.” Alex stated.
“Yes Mr. Jones!” Janice responded courteously.
“Alright then, I will take my leave.” “Ms. Fearon if you need anything, don’t be too polite to ask.”
“Sure, thank you!” Ariana can see that they respected Alex Jones, after all he is the Personal Assistant of the President. After Alex left the office Ariana turned to Janice and asked, “What can I start with?”
Janice looked at her with contempt and sneered, “Wipe our tables and when you are finished, clean out the storage room.”